According to Directive
2004/24/EC:
A Herbal medicinal product:
any medicinal product, exclusively containing as active ingredients one or more
herbal substances or one or more herbal preparations, or one or more such herbal
substances in combination with one or more such herbal preparations;
Herbal substances:
All mainly whole, fragmented or cut plants, plant parts, algae, fungi, lichen in
an unprocessed, usually dried, form, but sometimes fresh. Certain exudates that
have not been subjected to a specific treatment are also considered to be herbal
substances. Herbal substances are precisely defined by the plant part used and
the botanical name according to the binomial system (genus, species, variety and
author);
Herbal preparations:
preparations obtained by subjecting herbal substances to treatments such as
extraction, distillation, expression, fractionation, purification, concentration
or fermentation. These include comminuted or powdered herbal substances,
tinctures, extracts, essential oils, expressed juices and processed exudates.’